Unhappy with his team’s display with the willow, Indian captain Hardik Pandya on Sunday said the batsmen must take more responsibility going forward. India produced another stunning batting display as they could only manage 152/7 in the second T20I against West Indies, which the hosts won by two wickets.
The total was just a touch better than the 145/9 they managed in the first game. “It was not a pleasant batting performance to be honest. Wickets were falling and the track was on the slower side. We could have batted better. 160 plus or 170 would have been a good total.”
Hardik said at the post-match presentation “Batters have to take more responsibility”.
India are 0-2 in the five-match series with the likes of Shubaman Gill, Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav and Sanju Samson failing to score.
With the current combination we’ve got, we’re going to have to trust our top seven batsmen to do well and hope the bowlers win your matches. We’ve got to find ways to make sure we have the right balance, but at the same time the batsmen need to take on more responsibilities.
Tilak Varma looked fine playing in his debut series as he scored most of the runs for India. “The way he’s been batting is something we’re looking at. The lefty at No. 4 gives us a right-to-left combination. The youngsters are coming in with confidence and fearlessness.”
West Indies captain Rovman Powell was delighted with the win
“It’s a very good position. Hopefully we can keep winning. We always knew it would come down to how we batted against the spin. It shows that cricket is a game of wonderful uncertainties.”
As he shuffled his pitchers during the innings, he said, “I realized that whenever batters go to pitchers, they don’t go to the first pitcher. So I tried to eliminate that and gave my bowlers one-off spells, especially the fast bowlers, because it’s very hot.”
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